Wild pea seed dormancy is mediated by a water-impermeable seed coat. Using wild and domesticated pea (Pisumelatius, P. humile and P. fulvum), Abbo et al.show that the agronomic implications of wild pea hard-seededness are incompatible with millennia of unconscious selection leading to domestication: poor establishment and associated net yield loss in cultivation is likely to have resulted in abandonment of the species, rather than continued unprofitable cultivation.